Making a Spectacle: A Fashionable History of Glasses


Description :
From th century Franciscan monks to Beyonc in Black is King Making a Spectacle charts the fascinating ascension of eyeglasses from an unsightly but useful tool to fashion s must have accessory.The power of glasses to convey a range of vivid messages about their wearers have made them into a billion dollar business that appeals to cool kids and rock stars and those who want to be like them but the fashionable history of eyeglasses is fraught with anxiety and drama.
At the beginning of the th century the assessment in Vogue and Harper s Bazaar was that spectacles were invariably disfiguring. Invisibility was the best option and glasses were only to be put on once the lights at the opera went dark.While variations of that glasses shaming sentiment appeared at regular intervals over the next years or so eyeglasses continued to evolve into an endless array of shapes colors purposes and personalities. Once sunglasses took off in the s the magazine editorial made glasses a conspicuous part of the fashion narrative. Eyeglasses went to the ski slopes the stables the beach the Havana hotel. Plastic innovations made a candy colored rainbow of cat eyes and starlet styles possible. Suddenly everyone had the opportunity to look like Jackie O on vacation in Capri.Making a Spectacle traces contemporary high fashion frames back to their origins: the military aviator the glam cat eye the nerdly Oxford the high tech shield the fanciful butterfly the lowly rimless and other styles all make an appearance. Featuring interviews with influential designers makers and purveyors of glasses including Adam Selman Kerin Rose Gold and l.a. Eyeworks Making a Spectacle also takes a look at today s most cutting edge eyewear showing the reader the latest and most innovative ways to see and be seen.